Arts The Nanny-State Texan
Last month, I wrote this column about the Seattle Rep’s decision to buck the smoking ban in its production of Private Lives by Noel Coward, the 1920s farce about couples and smoking and drinking. Here’s the nut graph:
“This is a play and a play is an expressive activity,” said Bruce Johnson, chair of the Rep’s board and a First Amendment lawyer. “State and county laws prohibiting freedom of expression are not enforceable if they are contrary to the First Amendment.” The anti-smoking law, broadly written to prohibit “any lighted smoking equipment” in a public place, appears to ban incense in churches and temples as well as the odd stage cigarette.
Today I got a concerned response from Bob of Cypress, Texas (a suburb of Houston, pop. 18,000, and hometown of Fred Whitfield, a six-time calf roping world champion):
Seattle Repertory Theatre doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to the state law prohibiting public indoor smoking. The purpose of the law is to the protect public health from very hazardous second-hand tobacco smoke, and public health always trumps the First Amendment. Approximately ten percent of the population has asthma or another respiratory ailment.
Theatres are not exempt from the fire code, and should not be exempt from any health or safety code. Some theatrical people think that their creative license is more important than anybody’s health. That is totally egocentric, arrogant, and wrong.
If playwrights are so creative, they can use props like unlit cigarettes. Certainly they do not use real bourbon or bullets.
Bob
While I enjoy your last two sentences, you’re wrong, wrong, wrong. Legally speaking, I don’t think the courts would agree that public health trumps the Bill of Rights. Philosophically speaking, that sentiment is frightening. A state that gets to decide what’s in the public interest and suspending citizens’ rights accordingly is totalitarianism.
But that’s not really what bugs me about your letter, Bob. What bugs me is that you’re from Texas. I know, I know, there are all kinds of people who live in Texas, but isn’t your state motto “Don’t mess with Texas” or “Don’t tread on me” or something appropriately libertarian?
Actually, no. Turns out the Texas state motto is “Friendship.” How wussy! Texas has a wussy state motto! Washington’s state motto is “Alki,” the Chinook word for “by and by,” which totally kicks “Friendship“‘s ass.
“Don’t Mess with Texas” came from the Texas Department of Transportation in 1986, a slogan intended to reduce littering.
In conclusion: Bob’s wrong, Private Lives closed without incident, Texas has a wussy motto, and “Don’t Mess with Texas” is really about littering. Now, for dessert, please enjoy cypresstexasholdem.com, a weird link I found while digging for information about Bob and his fair city.
not to defend the republic of texas, but "don't mess with texas" was born as part of an anti-litter campaign.